Visual Aesthetics Summation

This page is the result of an assignment in GRCP101 in which we were asked to view 2 black and white movies and create a summary of our experiences with both films. Below you will find the summation of my experiences with the Seven Up! Series by Michael Apted and Fritz Langs 1926 film METROPOLIS.

The ultimate goal of this assignment was to familiarize the student with in-depth research and from that research create (in our own words) a report or summary of our experiences with the material in order to enhance our web authoring skills.

Background:

As a student of the Website Design and Development program here at Clark College, one of my required courses is GRCP101 - Introduction to Electronic Publishing. One of the assignments of this course was a lesson on visual aesthetics. The purpose of which was to help is learn how to seek out data, interpret it in our own words, then write reports and summations of this work as web pages.

This page is a summation of my experience with this project. In this project we were asked to view 2 separate film from a provided list of movies. I chose the Seven Up! series and Metropolis as my two films.

My personal experience:

I thoroughly enjoyed this assignment in many ways. I learned a allot about the older German films and about myself during this process. I am a child of the color TV generation. Growing up, my parents would skip past the black and white movies when we watched TV. It became part of who I am to automatically not like them.

To me, black and white films were alien, hard to watch and harder to understand. Before this project you wouldn’t catch me dead watching one. Silent movies, ha! Even worse as far as I was concerned. Yes I may watch one with my grandma every now and then, but strictly for her enjoyment and to be good company.

This assignment taught me some unexpected things about myself and has had unforeseen impacts on my opinions about B/W and silent cinema.

The Seven Up! Series by Michael Apted:

The Seven Up! Series was extremely interesting. Watching these children grow and mature into adults so rapidly, within just a few hours, was something I had never witnessed before and because of that reason, it was interesting. I watched some of their childhood dreams become realities, and watched intently as their lives and worlds changed based on their upbringing and education.

The best part about the whole experience was that this was all real! It wasn’t fake or done with special effects, the kids weren’t actors in some elaborate fake-umentary, they were very real people living very real lives, on camera. It was simply fascinating.

This film helped me discover that if this black and white film could be interesting, why couldn’t others? I am now much more open to watching them than previously. If I were asked to rate this movie based on how successful it was in changing my point of view about black and white movies, I’d have to give it 150% because not only was I hooked, but my wife and kids were also interested in it and wanted to watch the rest of the series with me!

Moving on to METROPOLIS, my first response to this movie is a simple one: WOW!

This was my very first ever silent black and white film. From the very beginning of this film I was captivated by the extreme environments and wildly futuristic ideas that Fritz Lang incorporated into this masterpiece of German film making.

It surprised me how much information I was able to extrapolate from this silent film. The actors facial expressions and body language conveyed quite a bit of information, so much so that spoken words were not necessary. This was an absolutely incredible silent movie. Fritz Lang did a superb convincing me that this movie took place in the year 2026.

The only reason I agreed to watch this film was because of the profound influence the Seven Up! series had on me and because I am a fan of science fiction films. I love them, but I had one problem with this film. It was black and white, and silent! This added to my torment. I hesitantly put it in the DVD player, but it was difficult to push the “play” button, thinking to myself “Eww! Silent movie…. Eww!”. I managed to work up enough strength and will power to push play, and I’m glad I did. As I began watching Metropolis, the torment I initially felt quickly turned into delight.

Right after the introduction the film started getting interesting! I think what really captured my interest was trying to figure out what they were saying when they were talking, and also trying to figure out how they were feeling by their facial expressions and body language. It was almost like a game of sorts. In a way, this made it fun to watch.

Who would have thought that an anti-silent movie activist such as myself (joking about the activist part of course…) would be instantly converted to a pro-silent movie conformist, in just the first few minutes of his first ever silent movie?

All in all this was a very powerful film with amazing sets and architecture, props and gizmo’s. I loved it and am proud to say that both of these movies have made it into my very hard to get into “Favorites list”.

Conclusion:

During this assignment, I have learned not to judge a DVD by its cover, to be more open minded about my pre-conceived opinions, and I have a new outlook on black and white movies. That new outlook is; “Give it a chance. If you don’t like it, return it. But if you do like it, you’ve discovered something new about yourself!”.

I appreciate the opportunity to expand my horizons and learn new things. I came into this class expecting to learn new things about other things, not about myself. This has been a very rewarding experience indeed.

Besides, how can I complain when my homework is watching movies?! I mean… c’mon!